Author: Crippy

Tigers 4 White Sox 1

Crippy Baseball

Where would the Tigers be without Kyle Lobstein? He came through, again, yesterday afternoon in Chicago to rescue the Tigers from a three game debacle in Chicago to end their 10 game road trip 5-5.

The Lober has pitched more than adequately for a fifth starter, and quite frankly, has pitched better than the third and fourth starters in the rotation. Twenty-nine games into the season, Kyle Lobstein, just might be the Tigers’ MVP.

Hey, whatdaya know, Brad Ausmus might be thinking twice about wanting to be known as the dumbest manager in baseball. He brought Soria in for a four out save. Perhaps an old dog can learn new tricks.

KC is in town this weekend. I’ll be at Sunday’s night game. I’ll be watching tonight and tomorrow from a comfortable perch in chilly Las Vegas.

White Sox 7 Tigers 6

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Perhaps Brad Ausmus is trying to unseat Robin Ventura as the dumbest manager in baseball.  I can think of no other reason for leaving Joba in the game to give up the go-ahead run in the 8th. I can’t fault him for the bomb off the bat of Melky Cabrera.  He should have been out of the inning.  I’m not sure how the official scorer gave Eaton a hit on the ball that went through Castellanos’ glove but he bottom line is Chamberlain should have been in the dugout with a three run lead.

Speaking of Castellanos, what happened to late inning defensive replacements? Andrew Romine?

This was another sub par performance from Alfedo Simon.  Like Shane Greene yesterday, he had little control. It looks like the three and four spots in the rotation are going to be problems.

There is more blame to go around.  Although the offense scored six runs they left 12 men on base,  Miggy looks horrible and they ran themselves out of the ninth.

Hmmm, has anybody noticed the runs the Twins are scoring.

On the bright side, the bullpen has looked good lately with the exception of The Amazing, Everyday Al and Joba.  Also, Victor drove in four runs and hit his first homer today.

Lober tomorrow to salvage one.

White Sox 5 Tigers 2

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The Tigers have a problem in Shane Greene.  He started off ok but I think this is four bad starts in a row.  He didn’t make it out of the third today.  He couldn’t find the plate at all. That being said, the Tigers had chances.

The top of line up set the table but the middle of the lineup was atrocious.  They are going to need Jose Miguel Cabrera to get some clutch, two out, RBIs if they are ever going to beat good pitching.  This was a very disappointing game .  They lost to the dumbest manager in the game.

Not this garbage again.

Hmmm Look Out Below?

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Before the start of the 2015 baseball season, at the draft of one of my fantasy baseball leagues, regular reader, Sark, predicted that the Minnesota Twins might be a threat in the A.L. Central this season.

I really wasn’t sure what to make of this prediction.  I didn’t like their dismissal of Ron Gardenhire, perhaps my favorite manager, and I didn’t see any big improvements they made made to their roster, although I didn’t follow them that closely in the off season, and after the Tigers torched them to open the season, I didn’t think much more about them. But did anyone notice that they swept a four game series from the White Sox this weekend?

Thursday they beat Chris Sale into a conniption hanging nine runs on him in three innings.  Friday they beat them 1-0. Saturday they won 5-3 and today they finished off the sweep with a 13-3 annihilation.  They are now in third place, one game over .500, and 7-3 in their last 10.

Sark, you may be on to something.  It’s early, but as Nebraska says, “we shall see”.

Tigers 6 Royals 4

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The Tigers salvaged a split of the four game, weekend, series in Kansas City.  They were lead by Anibal Sanchez who turned in 7.1 impressive innings and earned his second win of the season.  The offense took a brief hiatus from their spring slumber and put six runs on the board and the bullpen made the early lead stand up.  The series ended a lot better than it started.

I think Ned Yost did the Tigers a favor by taking Salvador Perez out of the game when the Tigers had a big lead. Salvi destroys Tigers pitching and might have done some damage when the Royals started coming back.

Jose Iglesias left the game with stiffness in his groin. Let’s hope it is nothing serious.  Besides Miggy, he might be the last person this team can afford to lose.

Question: If you are on second base, with less than two outs, and the ball is hit to your right, are you supposed to:

A: Run to third
B: Run back to second
C: Get caught in between
D: None of the above

Tigers 2 Royals 1

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The offense is still AWOL.  However, last night, the CY Young Award winner, David Price, showed up and shut down the Royals.  Thanks to Price, the Tigers have a chance to salvage a split in this series.

In my post yesterday, I lamented the inconsistency of the Tigers offense.  Prior to the game, Mario and Rod showed a statistic validating my complaint.  I don’t have the number committed to memory but I believe the graphic showed that the Tigers lead the league both in games scoring two runs or less and games scoring 10 runs or more.  Like I said yesterday, this goes beyond this year, this is a problem with philosophy.  It is a stubborn philosophy that has plagued this team for the last 5-8 years and they refuse to change.

Victor can’t hit right now, left handed, to save his life.  Defenses play “the shift” on him and give him the entire left side of the field but he won’t take his single. I know he can run but with the way the defense is playing him he doesn’t have to.  Same thing with Avila.

I believe someone a lot smarter than me once said “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.”

Mr. Illitch, I know you are a regular reader, it is time for a different direction.  Start with DD and BA.

Royals 4 Tigers 1

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Despite giving up four runs and 10 hits in 7.1 innings, I thought Kyle Lobstein pitched very well.  We has the victim of Eric Hosmer beating “the shift” with a bunt and a few seeing eye base hits.  I guess that’s what happens when you put the ball in play.  For a fifth starter, I’m not sure you can ask for more than Lobstein has given the Tigers this season.

The offense is maddening.  I know statistically they are in the top of every category but it is the same song and dance every year, inconstancy. Ten runs one game then nothing for a week.  Even tonight when they didn’t get a hit until the eighth inning, they had base runners courtesy of walks but couldn’t even put the ball in play to plate a run.  This team is striking out at an alarming rate.  The strikeouts combined with the double plays does not bode well for winning close games.  Again, it is the same old story.  Nothing changes.  I think it is time to clean house from Dombrowski all the way down. This formula is has not, is not, and in my humble opinion, will not work.

What is the story with hitting Chris Young?  Miggy is hitting under .200 for his career against him.  Ok, perhaps he’s got Miggy’s number but what about everybody else?  Is he suddenly Greg Maddux?  WTF?

Royals 8 Tigers 1

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This was the perfect storm. The Tigers could do nothing with Danny Duffy and the Royals beat Alfredo Simon into a conniption.

There were a few bright spots.  First, Victor had two hits.  Second, The Amazing, Everyday Al pitched a scoreless inning to bring his ERA down to 9.00.

Let’s see if the Lobber can give the pen a break tonight.

2015 MLB All-Star Game

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After 40 years of watching baseball I still love the MLB All-Star Game.  The 2015 MLB ASG will be held in Cincinnati.  Hey, maybe I should make the trip down.  I love Cincinnati. Perhaps I can swing by Jeff Ruby’s but I digress.  Anyway, if you are so inclined here is a link to the ASG ballot.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2015/ballot.jsp?tcid=ASG15_mlb_homepage970x66

You can vote up to 35 times.

Please be sure not to vote for any Giants or Red Sox, save Freeway Ricky.  Hey, Remember when Ricky beat Youk into a conniption?